New House Palm

[miketropic]

I finally got my wife to agree to let me have some house plants..that stay in the house. MY goal was to go out and find a lady palm but that did not happen. our house plant sections are king of bare right now so my options were limited. plenty of parlor palms and cat palms and things like that. I ended up finding a nice little Phoenix roebelenii ( pygmy date palm ) in the back for £6 and had to bring it home. I picked up a few other plants ( prayer plant and some climbing vine ) but this was my price today and I am pretty happy with it and the price was wonderful. will repot it tomm. and hope it does well.

[GoggleboxUK]

Nice choice Mike!

Keep it stood in a saucer and never let it dry out by always keeping some water visible in the saucer and it will do fine. Feed it with any normail houseplant feed such as Miracle Gro or Baby Bio.

[kata]

Nice plant Mike, even nicer price...

I wondered what a Pygmy palm would look like.

[miketropic]

From what I read after many many years it can get to 10 ft if grown outdoors and produce dates but thats a long time off. It only has a trunk of about 6 inchs right now. I have repotted it and hope it will be happy in its new spot. Im sure it will be a deck palm in the summer. I plan to try a Phoenix canariensis_CIDP outside this summer as well.

[Steph]

I got a Robby, first of all I kept it outside in the garden on the sunny side, it didn't thrive.
Then I heard of people saying they were OK inside and best kept standing in water.
I've had it inside now for over a year and its growing nicely, needs repotting and is only drying out a bit at the leaftips.
When I do manage to repot it, it will be going into a plastic pot without drainage holes so that it really can 'stand in water'.
Its such a heavy beast in terracotta we can't move it!

[miketropic]

I repotted this one today..plastic pot no drain holes . hope it does well I might put it out under a tree in the summer to up the growth a bit. after I got this I found a lady palm so I may get another house palm soon... Im only worried this one wont get enough light anyone kept one in very low light?

[redsquirrel]

no drain holes will stagnate the water in the bottom.might do more harm than good.i often find with my seedlings that the compost stinks if never aired. i really would give it some serious thought and research.when plants are stood in water,they are taking in water subjected to air,palms are very unforgiving when it comes to rooting problems,they look fine on top until its too late

[kata]

I agree with Red about the water.

no drain holes will stagnate the water in the bottom.might do more harm than good

[Steph]

Try as hard as I ike I cannot keep mine wet enough in the central heating.

[Dave Brown]

There is a difference between having water that gets replenished and over flows, and sitting in the same water for months. My tiny one in 1991 is now about 9ft tall, and in a 200ltr playtub. What I did with the tub is to drill a hole 3" up the side, and it is watered until the water starts to flow out. This is the same a s dish and allows overflow, keeping the compost 'sweeter'. If you are to have it sat in water all the time, you will need to add crushed charcoal to the compost, which stops it going sour

[kata]

If you are to have it sat in water all the time, you will need to add crushed charcoal to the compost, which stops it going sour

Good tip Dave.

[miketropic]

thank you dave. it will have holes during the summer but right now it is sitting right next to a heating vent and has dried out fast already so I will have to keep a close eye on it till it goes out in spring.

[Steph]

Mine gets a litre of water most days and I can't keep the leaf tips from drying out......
Maybe spray yours as well.

[GoggleboxUK]

Mine has been inside since mid October and looks like this:



Mine gets topped up every 2-3 days and is in the darkest corner of a south facing bedroom. Don't worry about it not getting much light Mike, I had mine downstairs last winter and it did great in very shady conditions with no direct sunlight at all.

Mine has 4" of gravel in the base and sits in a 2" deep saucer so that the roots are never sat in water directly.